Carlos Cruz-Diez
Physichromie No. 394
1968
Vinyl paint, plywood, cardboard, plastic, and metal frame
121.2 cm x 62.2 cm x 6.3 cm (47 11/16 in. x 24 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in.)
Gift of Irene Shapiro, 1986

Carlos Cruz-Diez, along with his compatriot Jesús Rafael Soto, is one of the international pioneers of Kinetic art. The Physichromie series, which he started in 1959 and continues to this day, consists of constructions that generate optical effects as the viewer moves past them. He constructs these objects from rows of colored strips, whose colors are reflected and refracted through transparent or translucent plastic strips, thus generating color and form according to the angle of vision and light. The idea that motion is necessary to create form and color is essential to Cruz-Diez's artistic practice. According to him, a static artwork, like a photograph, can never illustrate or emulate the complexity of visual experience. The title of the series, Physichromie, is a combination of the words physical and chromatic, a reflection of Cruz-Diez's lifelong ambition to make color a physical phenomenon.